what I'm up to

Sunday, March 10, 2013

Happy, Happy Spinner

Folks, you're reading the words of an exceptionally happy spinner right now.

Tiny, twirling vehicle of happiness.

Yesterday afternoon I attended my first meeting of the Rhode Island Spinner's Guild... and it was fantastic. I always get unnecessarily nervous before these types of unfamiliar social/crafty gatherings... you'd think I would've learned from the last time I went to a meeting in Connecticut, but I didn't. The Fiasco still had to literally force me to leave the house and I'm ever so glad that he did. It turns out that Rhody spinners are a warm, welcoming, enthusiastic, and talented bunch and I absolutely cannot wait until next month's meeting, during which we will be learning how to spin art yarns! Plus, I got a whole bunch of spinning done on my little neglected spindle:

Pencil included for scale.

If you remember, I began this spinning project way back in October when I bought the spindle (a Golding purpleheart tsunami) at Rhinebeck. That nearly-full cop represents only a tiny fraction of the Merino wool/silk blend top I have stashed so I'll probably be spinning it forever, but I will get a ton of yardage and the fiber/spindle combo is so pleasant that I really don't mind.

I have a second Golding spindle and another bit of fiber that I feel like I've been spinning forever (well, since August):

Woolgatherings 100% Polwarth wool

There is only one explanation for why this yarn hasn't been finished over the past 8 months: I have not been spinning it. Over the fall I didn't spin very much and then since December I've been spinning mainly on my new wheel. I'm fine having works-in-progress, but in this case it caused a problem because the finished yarn was intended to be a birthday gift for my very good knitterly friend, Katy, whose birthday was waaaaaaay back in December. It got to the point where I would walk past my spindles and feel extreme guilt as I sat down at my wheel and spun away on other things. Then inspiration struck-- I had a second braid of the same fiber!

Duh.

Rather than force myself to find spindle time, I started spinning the second braid on the wheel and am making excellent progress. Katy's favorite color is purple so this yarn is literally made for her. I'd say I have about a third of the fiber left to spin and with any luck will finish it soon.

You have a spinning group nearby? How wonderful, you lucky girl! I love your spindle, it is so pretty, of course the fiber you have been working on is also very pretty! It is kind of difficult to keep up with both knitting and spinning isn't it?

Those spindles look so lovely. I haven't the patience for anything but my wheel these days. And I wouldn't feel too bad about being a bit late with handspun. Knitters understand. I finally finished and gave a friend her birthday gift of handspun just yesterday. Her birthday might have been in *cough* July...

About Me

I'm known as Shoelaceswitcher on most knitting-related sites and publish patterns under Shoelaceswitcher Designs. I'm a fairly obsessed knitter with a weakness
for socks, shawls, and shiny pretty yarn. Other than knitting I love
poetry, books, music, and science. I work as a marine biologist by day and I design knitwear by night.
I'm engaged to a wonderful guy (a.k.a. my Fiasco) and we have a very sweet cat, Calypso, and new kitten, Darwin.